It is well-known in the art to provide blocking sleds or like football defensive training equipment wherein a blocking pad or dummy is rearwardly resiliently yieldable under forceful blocking pressure by a football player. Apparatus or sleds of this type may be detachably anchored to the ground or utilize the weight of the equipment itself, in addition to spring pressure on the blocking pad, to provide resistance to the crouched onslaught of the player.
Blocking sleds of this nature may be found in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office classification of Class 273, Subclass 55, among others, and exemplary patents to facilitate understanding of the art include:
______________________________________ 3,329,428 - Moran 3,674,265 - Sheets et al 3,365,947 - Janich et al 4,447,056 - Dalton 3,427,021 - Donato 4,477,076 - Monaco 3,514,105 - Pillard ______________________________________
While these devices provide sound physical training in terms of effort and resistance, they lack a key aspect present in human response to head-on blocking forces, namely, the effort of the blocked player to elude the frontal pushback.
Upon commencement of dug-in forward movement against an offensive (or defensive) lineman at the start of a play, the blocked lineman reflexively and by training seeks to turn and twist away, thereby adding lateral and torsional forces to the resistance otherwise encountered by the blocking lineman. Training for such motion is not addressed by sleds and like training apparatus capable only of rearward-yielding movement.